Latest toy craze was total surprise to its inventor

By Kate Jones

10 June 2018 — 12:34pm

Increasing competition and falling profits for toy retailers are proof the industry is far from child’s play. Yet the success of one toy innovator shows imagination is still the key to capturing kid’s hearts.

Toy designer Madeleine Hunter

Photo: Supplied

Madeleine Hunter is one of the biggest names in Australian toy design. Her award-winning toys have won lucrative distribution deals across Europe and the US, and have injected new life into her family’s business.

Hunter was named the Rising Star of 2018 by the Australian Toy Association after the huge success of her Shibajuku Girls. The dolls, which retail for $20 each, are inspired by Japanese Harajuku fashion and are sold in more than 60 countries.

Hunter says she was blown away by the success of the Shibajuku Girls in Europe, but could barely believe it when they were picked up by major US retailers.

“When we went to Target in the US, they just kind of fell over for it, so that was really exciting, and then we thought, ‘Why not give Walmart a try?’, and we couldn't believe it, but the same thing happened there,” she says.

Advertisement

“I think it was sort of unheard of with a new toy company and a new product.”

Driven by the overseas success of the dolls, revenue for Hunter Products in the 2017 financial year grew to $20 million in export sales, representing 25 per cent of overall sales. This represents mostly new product developed under Hunter’s purview as head of product development.

The Dreamworks film home presented a major challange

Photo: Supplied

The 40-year-old company, owned by her father Jeff, employs Hunter and three of her four siblings. Hunter joined the business seven years ago and took her first crack at toy design in 2015 thanks to a deal with Dreamworks.

“Dad really threw me in the deep end with that one. He got back from an overseas trip and he was like, ‘You're going to be making the toys for the Dreamworks movie, Home,’ and I was like, ‘What? I've never made a toy in my life’,” she recalls.

“But I went straight to work in Hong Kong and it was a huge success. We made all the toys and shipped them to over 40 countries in the space of about 14 months.”

Next came the Shibajuku Girls, which stemmed from Hunter’s love of Japanese culture. But she met reluctance from Jeff, who was concerned about the crowded doll market.

Basically everyone I showed just loved the idea and they were captivated by this trend.

Madeleine Hunter

“It was a really tough sell because one of the toughest categories in toys is dolls, so from the outset it was a challenge,” she says.

“I took it in concept form to a distributors show in London and I had a few packaging mock-ups, and basically everyone I showed just loved the idea and they were captivated by this trend.”

The dolls became the first line of toys Hunter Products had exported with its own intellectual property. Previously, its only exported toys were licensed products.

Loading

The dolls were sold to Toys R Us in the US just two years before the company announced it would be closing 735 of its stores after going bankrupt in September last year.

Last month its Australian arm announced it would be going into voluntary administration, but has continued to trade while administrators explore future possibilities. The news has thrown the future of 700 Australian employees into doubt.

Toys R Us has a 20.4 per cent market share in Australia, followed closely by Australian Retailers Limited at 20.1 per cent, according to research firm IBISWorld. ARL owns the Toyworld brand, which has 133 stores across Australia.

Australia’s $943 million toy industry has faced tough conditions in recent years with increased competition from department stores, eBay and online retailers, including Amazon. However, IBISWorld predicts conditions will improve thanks to a forecasted growth in discretionary income and an increase in the proportion of people aged 14 and younger.

Hunter is similarly optimistic about the future for Australian toy retailers. She says while Amazon’s entry into the market will test retailers, nothing beats the tangibility of toys on shelves.

“I think they'll definitely put pressure on Australian retailers and that's just the nature of the business - it's happening everywhere,” she says.

“But in Australia, it tends to be mainly kids going into a store and looking at all the toys, so it hasn't actually affected us. It's just made us more determined.”